Sloth Bear

Facts

IUCN VULNERABLE (VU)

Facts about this animal

The Sloth Bear is a medium-sized bear, with males being larger than females. The length is 130-180 cm, the height at the shoulder 65-100 cm and the weight is 55-145 kg. It has a very long muzzle with protrusible mobile lips and a broad blackish-brown nose which can be closed voluntarily. The eyes and teeth are small, the 1st upper incisor is missing. It has tufts of hair on the ears.

The coat is long (80-200 mm), coarse and shaggy, typically black or blackish brown (occasionally cinnamon or "red") except for face and muzzle where hair is short and dirty white, beige or brown. A white, yellowish or chestnut brown V shaped chest mark is usually present. The hair is straight or wavy, longest on the neck and shoulders. The soles of the feet are naked. The claws are white, cream or occasionally light brown. They are very long, blunt and curved.

Did you know?
that sloth bears are the only bears to carry young on their backs? In the late 1700s, the first Europeans to see sloth bears described them as bear-like sloths due to their ungainly appearance and long claws. The Hindi word for bear "bhalu" inspired the name of Rudyard Kipling's bear character Baloo in The Jungle Book.

Factsheet
Class	MAMMALIA
Order	CARNIVORA
Suborder	FISSIPEDIA
Family	URSIDAE
Name (Scientific)	Melursus ursinus
Name (English)	Sloth Bear
Name (French)	Ours à miel
Name (German)	Lippenbär
Name (Spanish)	Oso bezudo
Local names	Hindi: Bhalu, Rinch, Reech Marathi: Asval Malay: Puni karadi Tamil: Karadee
CITES Status	Appendix I
CMS Status	Not listed

Photo Copyright by
Aaron Siriila

Distribution

Distribution
Range	Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka
Habitat	Lowland, evergreen, moist and dry deciduous forest, grassland and thorn scrub
Wild population	Approx. 10,000-20,000 (2006) (Red List IUCN 2011)
Zoo population	68 reported to ISIS (2005)

In the Zoo

How this animal should be transported

For air transport, Container Note 72 of the IATA Live Animals Regulations should be followed.

Find this animal on ZooLex

Photo Copyright by
Postdlf

Why do zoos keep this animal

The sloth bear is rated Vulnerable by IUCN. With a view of building up a viable reserve population, an International Studbook has been established in 1996 under the WAZA umbrella, and coordinated conservation breeding programmes are operated at the regional level by AZA, EAZA and JAZA.

Animal welfare may be another reason for South Asian zoos to keep sloth bearts, as they may come into the situation to care for confiscated specimens that were illegally traded or illegally kept.

How this animal should be kept

Traditional bear enclosures are often quite inadequate, and transforming or replacing old enclosures requires a lot of space and major investments. Many zoos have therefore reduced the number of bear species kept, to provide more space and higher quality enclosures for just one or two species.

Existing enclosures of less than 100 m² should be given up as soon as possible. For two or three compatible non-breeding adults the enclosure should have a size of at least 300 m². For a breeding pair two enclosures of at least 300 m² each should be available.

Individual sleeping / cubbing dens of 6 m² are required. If the climatic conditions do not allow for giving the bears daily access to the outdoor enclosure all year round, the indoor space should be at least 12 m² per adult.

The enclosure should be furnished with ample climbing opportunities and large hollow trees or other cavities to retreat. In larger enclosures, natural soil with grass cover is recommended. Older, small enclosures usually have a concrete floor which should at least in part be covered with a more suitable substrate such as bark chips.

Zoo-born bear cubs should not be hand-reared as a matter of routine. Failure of females to rear cubs usually occurs due to disturbance; every effort should be made to avoid the female being disturbed. If a cub is abandoned, or the mother has died, it should be considered on a case-by-case basis whether hand-rearing is the best option for the individual or whether euthanasia is a more humane.